"Like a mistress who has lost her allure, the gaming industry is getting the cold shoulder from Wall Street." That's how the Las Vegas Review-Journal's gaming industry columnist described what's happened to the stocks of casino operators, which in the last week have sunk to "historic lows."

On Sunday, Howard Stutz wrote that some companies' stock can now be bought for "pocket change," and Wall Street analysts are warning investors away from the gaming industry: As one analyst described it, casino stocks "have been taken to the woodshed in 2008 after a multiyear bull run in the sector driven by cheap debt, mergers and acquisitions, and consolidation," with declines averaging some 60 percent.

This time, however, it's the casino execs who were wrong about Las Vegas. By the early spring, the media was declaring the end of Vegas's winning streak, with casino revenues down, a large drop in convention business, and cuts in room rates and jobs. By July, the Wall Street Journal was reporting that four casinos had filed for bankruptcy, while other casino companies had defaulted on debts. By the end of September, casino company stocks were diving as well, and plans for expansions and new construction were on the rocks.

All of this means serious damage to Nevada's tax base, which is highly dependent on the gaming industry. At the same time, the state has now had the highest rate of home foreclosures in the country for 20 straight months. August figures show 1 in 91 homes being foreclosed upon statewide; in Las Vegas, it's 1 in 75. Some subdivisions are starting to feel like ghost towns. The sorry state of things is also sadly evident in the increase in homeless pets, left behind by families forced out of their homes in what for years was one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States.